BILL NUMBER: SCR 27	CHAPTERED  05/18/99

	RESOLUTION CHAPTER   33
	FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE   MAY 18, 1999
	ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY   MAY 13, 1999
	ADOPTED IN SENATE   APRIL 26, 1999

INTRODUCED BY   Senators Johannessen, Alpert, Costa, Rainey, Speier,
and Vasconcellos
   (Coauthors: Assembly Members Robert Pacheco and Villaraigosa)

                        MARCH 17, 1999

   Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 27--Relative to Amyotrophic
Lateral Sclerosis Awareness Month.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SCR 27, Johannessen.  Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
Awareness Month.
   This measure would proclaim the month of May in each year as
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Awareness Month.  This measure would
encourage Californians to join the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Association in its war against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.




   WHEREAS, More than 30,000 Americans suffer from amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (ALS), and will die within three to five years; and

   WHEREAS, It is estimated that 300,000 Americans that are alive and
healthy today will die of ALS; and
   WHEREAS, ALS is always fatal; and
   WHEREAS, There is currently no known cause or cure for ALS; and
   WHEREAS, ALS patients require 24-hour-a-day care, and the care
givers are most often a spouse or child; and
   WHEREAS, ALS causes a gradual, but eventually complete, paralysis.
  The only muscles not affected by ALS are the eyes and heart; and
   WHEREAS, ALS patients lose the ability to speak, swallow, and even
breathe on their own; and
   WHEREAS, The Greater Sacramento Chapter of the Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis Association's volunteer leadership is continuing the war
against ALS by providing public education, advocacy, fund development
for research, and patient services; now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby proclaims the month
of May in each year as "Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Awareness Month"
; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Legislature encourages all Californians to join
the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association in its war against the
deadly disease of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
